Common Core & NGSS

STEM Tuesday– Getting Your Comic-on with Great Science Graphic Novels– Writing Tips & Resources

By on December 18, 2018   /   Common Core & NGSS, Cross-Curricular, Graphic Novels, STEM Tuesday  

STEM Tuesday’s Gone Graphic

Comics? We don’t need any of that nonsense in STEM.

What was that? No, I did not see the STEM Tuesday “Great Science Graphic Novel” book list for this month.

Bah-humbug! We didn’t have STEM books like that when I was a kid. Textbooks were perfectly fine for us.

No, my name is not STEMbeneezer Scrooge. Now, get off my lawn and leave me be. It’s time for my nap.

Who’s there? I thought I told you to skedaddle.

Aye! It’s a spirit.

Leave me be! I’m just an old STEM guy stuck in my ways. I’m going back to sleep before Wheel of Fortune comes on.

“STEMbeneezer, log on and follow me!”

What in the world? Another STEM spirit!

Smooth, Ghost of STEM Present. Real smooth. But I’m not going to get on the internet to scour bookstores.

Haven’t you heard of online identity theft and spyware?

Jeez, leave me be, I’m going back to sleep. And where do you come up with these “original” names, anyway?

What are you? You must be the Spirit of STEM Future.

Aack! Don’t beam me up, Scotty!  I don’t want to go!

NOOOooo!!!

A hint? For what?

Help meeeeeeee!

Holy bad dreams. What happened? How long have I been asleep?

I know that answer!

Come, on! The answer’s easy.

Graphic storytelling is a great format for STEM books.

I’m a changed man. Textbooks have their place but the graphic novel format really does work well with STEM storytelling.

Graphic storytelling + STEM = Natural match

Using graphics to define a STEM concept has been a natural partnership for ages.  I present the evidence.

DaVinci designs are a graphical how-to manual

DaVinci’s water lifting device proposal

A canon design

Galileo’s graphic notes on his observations of Jupiter’s moons

Sir Issac Newton’s Graphic Notes

Illustrated concept from NEWTON’S PRINCIPIA

From Newton’s Notes on Alchemy

A young Isaac Newton’s graphical code listing his sins committed

Chemistry

If you have the reagents, you could probably make your own Vitamin A from this graphical reaction.

Maps of biological pathways

The Krebs Cycle, aka The “I wish I had a dollar for every time I memorized & forgot this pathway in my school days” Cycle.

 

TNF pathway from one of our lab’s publications. It tells the visual story of an E. Coli effector subverting the TNF inflammatory pathway.

Let the evidence show using graphics has worked in STEM since the STEM fields were born.

It’s only natural they work in the field of STEM storytelling, right?

Visual Storytelling

A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

UNDERSTANDiNG COMICS: THE INVISIBLE ART by Scott McCloud

This a book you must read whether you are interested in straight graphic storytelling or storytelling in general. It doesn’t matter if the storytelling is fiction or nonfiction, graphic storytelling can be a powerful option for a writer.

Sketchnotes

Sketchnoting is a great way to take notes for the visual-minded individuals. I follow Eva-Lotta Lamm and her work with sketchnotes. She offers a free, downloadable Mini Visual Starter Kit at her website to help you get started with sketchnotes.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you are now convinced that images and STEM go together. The graphic novel format for nonfiction and STEM books not only works, but it fits. Just as architects and engineers use a blueprint drawing to relay information to the contractor and specialists, STEM writers can use graphic storytelling to relay information to the reader.

Still not a believer? Go to the STEM Tuesday book list and give those titles a try. It’s a much less harrowing path than visits from a trio of STEM spirits.

Take it from me. STEM graphic novels and comics are the real deal!

Mike Hays has worked hard from a young age to be a well-rounded individual. A well-rounded, equal opportunity sports enthusiasts, that is. If they keep a score, he’ll either watch it, play it, or coach it. A molecular microbiologist by day, middle-grade author, sports coach, and general good citizen by night, he blogs about sports/training related topics at www.coachhays.com and writer stuff at www.mikehaysbooks.com. Two of his science essays, The Science of Jurassic Park and Zombie Microbiology 101,  are included in the Putting the Science in Fiction collection from Writer’s Digest Books. He can be found roaming around the Twitter-sphere under the guise of @coachhays64.

 

The O.O.L.F Files

The O.O.L.F. Files this month emphasizes the power of visual storytelling in STEM and to celebrate the season, a few links to STEM activities for the holidays. Enjoy!

Superheroes & STEM

Comic Einstein!

More Sketchnoting

Holiday STEM

 

 

Back to Top

STEM Tuesday — Getting Your Comic-on with Great Science Graphic Novels– In the Classroom

By on December 11, 2018   /   Common Core & NGSS, Cross-Curricular, Graphic Novels, STEM Tuesday  

Visual Literacy with Graphic Nonfiction!

Graphic nonfiction is a great way to work on visual literacy strategies. This week I’ll introduce four questions/ teaching moves that I use to work on visual literacy with students. I’ll give examples from this month’s book list, but you can repurpose these for use with other graphic nonfiction, illustrations, or diagrams from any science text.

 

1) Provide a diagram or illustration with the text removed. Ask students to work with a partner to talk through the answers to these questions: (a) Describe what you see. Don’t worry if you don’t know the name of any item in the picture—just describe it as you see it. (b) Make a prediction. What do you think the illustrator is trying to show here? (or—what do you think [xxxx] is?)

Consider this cell from the bottom of page 46 in Science Comics: Bats.

Ask:

What do you see in this image?

Make a prediction: what do you think the shapes might represent?

After students have studied the image and made predictions, show them a version with the text. They will be engaged and eager to see if their predictions were correct.

2) Take this a step further and ask students to fill in the blanks themselves with possible text. For example, if your class has already studied meiosis, you might use this image from page 17 of Science Comics: Dogs and let them fill in what the dog might be saying.

Then show the author’s version. Who’s do they like best?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Talk about the role of arrows or other diagram features. I worked with a group of high schoolers studying a mitosis diagram many years ago. When I asked about what they saw, they were describing the image as if it were showing 6 different cells—they missed the role of the arrows indicating that the first cell turned into the cell in each image that followed.

Here’s an example, from page 43 of Older than Dirt.

Ask: Arrows in diagrams can have different meanings. They can–

a) point to something important you should notice

b) give the name of an object in the picture

c) show that one thing turns into something else

d) show that something is moving.

What is the role of the arrows in this diagram?

4) Help them see the value of imagery. Often, some information is found in the text while the images add extra information or make the text more clear. Students who don’t study images miss that extra information. So another pair of questions I like to ask are: What information do you get from the words that is not in the images? What do you see in the images that is not in the words?

This series of frames from page 21 of Secret Coders is a good example of text and images with different information. In this scene, the boy Eni is explaining to Hopper how binary code can show numbers. (Which could be especially useful since digital coding—e.g., binary—is now a piece of the Next Generation Science Standards for middle school.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try these techniques with any of the graphic nonfiction texts from this month’s list, or any other image-heavy text you choose. Once you have used an image in class, make sure the book is available. Students will want to read the entire book!

Jodi Wheeler-Toppen is a former science teacher and the author of the Once Upon A Science Book series (NSTA Press) on integrating science and reading instruction.  She also writes for children, with her most recent book being Dog Science Unleashed: Fun Activities to do with Your Canine Companion. She can’t draw, so she’s extra impressed with the writers for this month’s books.

Back to Top

So, Why Realistic Fiction?

By on December 5, 2018   /   Articles, Book Lists, Common Core & NGSS, Fiction, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Teacher Tips  

Realistic Fiction in the Classroom

By Robyn Gioia

A genre that is not front and center in today’s stories of zombie, vampires, unicorns, and fairies is the world of realistic fiction. My class and I recently studied realistic fiction and what I learned was surprising.

The root word “real” in realism says it all. Are the characters regular people? Do they have problems? Do they make mistakes? Do they have real emotions? Do they grapple with pain, feel love, become utterly depressed, or bubble over with serendipity? Is the world real or is it a fantasy world with three moons and purple mountains? If it’s a made-up world, does it follow the rules of physics? If a character walks off a cliff, do they get hurt?

Plot

Probably the biggest element to examine is plot. Is it believable? Although circumstances may be extraordinary at times, is it something that could really happen? How do the characters deal with real problems? Are the solutions something that can really happen?

I noticed my students were so firmly rooted in fantasy, that when we studied our unit on realistic fiction, it took a lot of examination to decide if something could really happen. They argued that a character who miraculously survived a plane crash could climb the highest mountain, and walk a hundred miles to the next village without any food or water.

When I added that there are no super powers in realistic fiction, they stared at me. Then came the explanations. Maybe the survivor was in shape, they said. Maybe this person had a big dinner before the crash. Then the next set of “maybes” became even grander, without text evidence I might add. Maybe someone gave the person a ride. Maybe the person found a bunch of  power drinks. The “maybe” syndrome continued.

After our discussion, things got better. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the different reading groups asking each other, “Can it really happen and where is the evidence?”

So, why realistic fiction?

This brings us to the question. Why teach realistic fiction when other genres are vastly more popular?

Realistic fiction grounds students in real life. It lets them experience real life situations through cause and effect. It shows them the complexity of problems and how humans might react. It helps them to understand relationships. It helps students see life through the perspective of others.  It shows them how problems may or may not be solved. It exposes them to the vast differences in cultural beliefs and interactions between others.

To sum it up, realistic fiction helps students understand the way life works.

At the end of our study, something I did not expect was a comment from one of my brightest. “I haven’t found any books that I like. But I just learned that I like realistic fiction.” Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled out a copy of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and settled down to read.

 

Back to Top